To ask the Minister for Transport his plans for the development of the Phoenix Park Tunnel; if he has had discussions with Irish Rail on the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter
- Billy Timmins. (Nominated by: Denis Naughten).
For ORAL answer on Wednesday, 7th July, 2004.
Ref No: 20309/04
Answered by the Minister for Transport
(Seamus Brennan)
REPLY
I understand that the rail connection between Heuston and Connolly Stations is over 7kms in length, part of which is in tunnel under the Phoenix Park.
Irish Rail is looking at the potential for making greater use of the Phoenix Park Tunnel when the second phase of the DART upgrade programme is completed in 2007 and extra rail paths into Connolly Station become available.
The difficulty with the use of the Phoenix Park Tunnel at present is that Connolly Station has a limited number of train paths available through it. In order to facilitate services from Heuston now, trains would have to be taken off services such as those from Maynooth, Dundalk or the DART.
I should add that, by end August this year, Irish Rail customers using Heuston Station will have the facility to board LUAS trams outside the station to take them to Dublin City centre, Busarus and Connolly Station within a matter of minutes, a distance of around 3kms.
